Globalisation and
Years 1 to 10 Studies of Society and Environment
Key Learning Area
Occasional paper prepared for the
QueenslandSchool Curriculum Council
By
Brian Hoepper
School of Professional Studies
QueenslandUniversity of Technology
Kelvin Grove
CONTENTS
1. Globalisation: describing the topic
2. The pros and cons of globalisation
3. Theorising globalisation
4. Globalisation - linking with the Years 1 to 10 SOSE syllabus
5. Suggested curriculum topics
6. References and recommended readings
7. Websites related to globalisation
1. Globalisation: Describing the Topic
Globalisation is highlighted in the Queensland Years 1 to 10 Studies of Society and Environment (SOSE) Syllabus and Optional Subject Syllabuses for Civics, Geography and History. It features as a core content category to be investigated at all bands of schooling: lower primary, middle primary, upper primary and lower secondary.
In the following pages, the most significant elements of globalisation are described. Following that, some advantages and disadvantages of globalisation are canvassed, prior to a description of some ways in which globalisation has been theorised.
Roland Robertson, a leading theorist, describes globalisation as involving both 'the compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole' (1992:8). In other words, globalisation occurs 'out there' - where some phenomena (institutions, practices) operate on a global scale - but also 'in here' - in the sense of the way people think about the world they inhabit. Both those aspects are described in the following pages.
1.1 The Globalisation of communications technologies
Every day, many peoples of the world - especially those in more affluent societies - use and are influenced by advanced communications systems operating on a global scale. At a personal level, people use telephones, faxes and e-mail to make specific contact with other people, or to access services. Of the mass media systems, free-to-air television often uses global satellite links, while some pay television systems are wholly satellite based. The Internet has characteristics of both individual and mass media, enabling retrieval of information from systems while also enabling some direct person-to-person links. Important services depend on global communications networks - weather forecasting, search-and-rescue systems, air traffic control, and financial transactions ranging from currency trading to the personal use of automatic teller machines (ATMs).
1.2 The Globalisation of transportation technologies
Today's world is characterised by two unprecedented transportation forms - rapid international personal travel (air, rail and road) and the large-scale international movement of goods (sea, rail and road). These have had profound effects, notably the development of large-scale international tourism, and the development of global markets, as goods produced in one country are made available to consumers in others.
1.3 The Globalisation of markets, enterprise and finance
Transportation technologies have made possible the global movement of goods. But the emergence of global markets has depended on political initiatives, particularly trade liberalisation, the elimination of tariff barriers and the establishment of regional trading blocs such as the EU, APEC and NAFTA.
Transnational Corporations (TNCs) have been prominent in the development of globalised markets. Mostly originating in major industrialised nations, TNCs have become relatively 'homeless', with their activities established in numerous countries. The semiotics of globalised markets are fascinating, as TNCs strive for simple logos, brand names or slogans that have global recognition and appeal. Thus, companies jettison parochial and complicated names (Kentucky Fried Chicken; Bank of New South Wales; South East Queensland Electricity Board) and adopt ones with universal appeal (KFC; Westpac; Energex). Most successful have been McDonald's and Nike, whose logos have become universally recognisable, obviating the need to even use the names. A recent piquant semiotic move was Ford's bestowing the name 'Ka' on its new global small car.
Concurrently, there have been globalising moves in the financial industries. Using global communications systems, investors and institutions shift trillions of dollars around the globe each day, seeking short-term profit through fluctuations in share and currency prices. Less spectacularly, but significantly, capital is invested on a transnational scale, fuelling enterprise around the world. TNCs seek investment advantages in different countries, considering such factors as government policy and labour costs. The currently lapsed plan for a Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) was a significant example of a global initiative designed to free TNCs and others from controls and restrictions.
At the individual level, people (in wealthier nations especially) can use credit cards which are valid for purchases, services and cash provision around the globe. They can also order goods directly from around the globe, using Internet links. In these ways, global markets have become largely 'cashless' systems.
1.4 The Globalisation of employment practices
There are three aspects to this. First, as TNCs expand their activities, many people in different countries find themselves working for foreign corporations, often making goods for foreign markets. This is particularly the case in low-wage countries in Asia, Africa and Central America. Second, hundreds of thousands of workers (many largely unskilled) have migrated to industrialised countries in search of employment. This is particularly the case in Europe and the USA. Third, among more 'elite' workers, there has been a different global practice developing. Highly educated and highly skilled people move frequently around the world, seeking career advancement with TNCs, governments and international institutions such as the UNO. Thus, many professionals, academics and executives become 'global citizens' more than citizens of any one nation.
1.5 Globalisation and the nation-state
In a number of ways, forces of globalisation have weakened the individual nation-state. Powerful TNCs have been able to exert strong pressure on economically weaker nations, demanding favourable policies and arrangements in return for capital investment. As well, various international organisations have been able to exert pressure on individual nations. These include the UNO, the International Labour Organisation, the International Court of Justice, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, as well as non-government organisations (NGOs) such as Greenpeace, Amnesty International and WWF. The regional economic agreements described above have weakened the power of individual states, as has membership of international security agreements such as NATO. Further, 'national identity' has been weakened by the emergence of 'global workers' and 'global citizens' described above. As Giddens claims, 'in circumstances of accelerating globalisation, the nation-state has become "too small for the big problems of life, and too big for the small problems of life"' (1991, p. 65). However, amid the globalising forces described above, there have been strident examples of parochialism and local assertion of identity, as in the new 'Balkanisation' of the former USSR and Jugoslavia.
1.6 Globalisation and culture
Along with the weakening of the nation-state have come challenges to national cultural identity. Stuart Hall claims that 'with the processes of globalisation, that form of relationship between a national cultural identity and a nation-state is now beginning ... to disappear' (1991:22). This cultural change has resulted largely from technological and economic developments described above. Countries around the world have been saturated by media messages and products from dominant (usually Western, mainly US) cultures. Some theorists describe this process as the 'Americanisation' of culture around the world, as US cultural products and images are taken up in a homogenised global culture (Featherstone 1990). However, the homogenisation proceeds alongside some fragmentation, as US cultural influences are sometimes transformed in local settings (such as ethnic 'fast food’), and as there is an increasing resurgence of some local, ethnic cultural practices and products (such as music and dance from Africa, the Caribbean and Ireland). In some cases, that resurgence itself becomes global in its reach (for example, the Riverdance phenomenon).
1.7 Globalisation, issues and action
Increasingly, people are realising that ecological and social issues are not confined within national borders. The Chernobyl nuclear disaster impacted on many nations, and such issues as global warming, the depletion of the ozone layer, Indonesian forest fires, and fisheries depletion transcend national borders. Our Common Future, the 1987 report of the UN Commission on Environment and Development, portrayed vividly the global reach of ecological impacts. Similarly, issues of human rights abuse and the plight of refugees are global in scale. As TNCs expand, consumers around the globe become enmeshed in questions of working conditions and environments in countries other than their own. Giddens pointed to the complex intersection of globalisation and people's daily lives, admitting that 'my decision to buy a certain item of clothing has implications not only for the international division of labour but for the earth's ecosystems' (1994, p. 5).
In the face of such global issues, international responses have been advocated - including statements on human rights (the UNO), agreements on environmental targets (Rio de Janiero 1992; Kyoto 1996) and the declaration of World Heritage sites. Action has come at a global level as well, through such organisations as Greenpeace, Amnesty International and various agencies of the UNO dealing with children, labour, refugees and health.
2. The Pros and Cons of Globalisation
The pros and cons of globalisation have been debated vigorously. To some, globalisation represents the dawn of a wonderful new age of human history, with unprecedented opportunities and benefits. To others, it represents new problems and new challenges that threaten ecological and human well-being. Still others see globalisation as a mixed blessing, bringing both benefits and costs.
2.1 Some benefits of globalisation
The preceding description of globalisation touched on some of the most obvious benefits of globalisation. Probably, few would dispute that it's good that people can be in contact with far-off family, friends and colleagues via modern globalised communications. Similarly, few would dispute the way many people's lives have been enriched by access to television programs beamed in by satellite, or to the seemingly limitless resources of the Internet. Many might also claim that being able to buy goods produced around the globe - from foodstuffs to clothing to automobiles - is a sign of progress. Australians in particular seem also to appreciate opportunities for overseas travel, a key feature of globalisation.
There are some specific examples which highlight some of the benefits of globalisation: sophisticated positioning systems helping in Tony Bullamore's dramatic rescue in the Southern Ocean; Pacific island doctors carrying out a complex operation, guided by expert advice beamed in from an Australian surgeon by satellite television; a political detainee in Moscow being released in response to a flood of foreign communications after his plight was publicised on the Internet.
Less measurable, but still probably significant, are the benefits of culturally inclusive images and messages being projected in television documentaries, drama and even advertisements (such as recent Berri and Toyota advertisements). Similarly, exposure to diverse and complex ecological systems through television programs has probably contributed to the greater awareness of global ecological interdependence, and to many people's commitments to more sensitive, conserver lifestyles.
2.2 Some costs of globalisation
At the same time, critics have pointed to some costs of globalisation. The intense competitiveness of the global marketplace has placed a premium on cutting costs, leading in places to exploited labour and disregard for environmental safeguards. The massive increase in the global movement of goods and people has intensified ecological problems, especially those related to energy use. The 'Americanisation' of popular culture around the world has led to a loss of cultural diversity, and to cultural homogenisation. Overall, there are allegations that the most striking benefits of globalisation are enjoyed mainly by the more well-off people of the world, whether in developed or developing countries.
Some recent specific examples highlight some of the costs of globalisation. Workers in Indonesian Nike factories being paid sub-standard wages to make expensive running shoes for Westerners; 'ships of shame' cruising the seas, laden with toxic cargoes, seeking a nation willing to receive them; young children in Suva, Fiji, pleading that their parents drive them and their friends 400 kilometres for a birthday party at McDonald's in Nandi.
3. Theorising Globalisation
Given the debates about the benefits of globalisation, it's hardly surprising that there have been diverse ways in which globalisation has been theorised. In terms of whether globalisation is a progressive force, the two poles of the theoretical debate can be illustrated through FrancesFukuyama on the one hand, and Joe Kincheloe and Peter McLaren on the other.
Fukuyama, in his 'The End of History and the Last Man' claimed that globalisation reflected the 'end of history'. What he meant was that the world had become one giant capitalist marketplace, in which all people can enjoy the benefits of globalised goods and services. In this world, the ideological battle between capitalism and communism is over. And thus, if 'history' involves a 'dialectic' (a struggle between opposing forces), then there is no more history, because the dialectic has been resolved in favour of liberal capitalism.
Kincheloe and McLaren, however, argued that such a rosy picture of globalisation rested on a form of collective amnesia in the face of global injustice. They identified the 'social amnesia of a media-driven hyperreality' (1994:148) - claiming that the seductive and soothing messages of globalised capitalism and globalised media have overwhelmed people with a sense of the wondrous material and cultural benefits of globalisation, while obscuring the human and ecological costs involved.
As suggested later, an evaluation of the merits of these two theoretical standpoints might be a valuable focus for SOSE students.
Other theorists have focused on specific aspects of globalisation. Thus, responding to Giddens's claim about the decline of the nation-state, Camilleri and Falk have highlighted the continuing strength of 'sovereignty discourse' (1992:2) while van der Gaag has described how, in the disintegrating USSR and Eastern bloc, the 'quest for nationhood' among those diverse populations has reached a 'flood level' (1996:8). Wallerstein (1990) and Gilpin (1987) have also pointed to the enduring importance of the nation-state. The emerging importance of supra-national and regional organisations and groupings has been analysed by Ekins (1992), Giddens (1990, 1994); Korten (1990); Soroos (1986) and Suter (1992).
Trade liberalisation and global financial systems have been studied by Atkinson (1995), Barnet and Cavanagh (1994), Daly and Goodland (1992), Fagan and Webber (1994), George (1992, 1994), Gill (1995), Gordon and Suzuki (1990) and Waters (1995). Global issues of employment and labour have been analysed by David and Wheelwright (1989), Mander (1991), Mishra (1995) and Wallerstein (1991).
4. Globalisation - linking with the Years 1 to 10 SOSE syllabus
The topic 'Globalisation' is embedded in the Years 1 to 10 Studies of Society and Environment Syllabus in many ways. The following sections highlight the ways in which 'Globalisation' can be related to the Strands, Key Values, Processes and Core Learning Outcomes of the syllabus.
4.1 Strands
Time, continuity and change
Within this strand, Studies of Society and Environment students would describe the ways in which the world has become increasingly globalised, and would explore the possible causes of those unprecedented processes. Further, on the basis of their studies, they would speculate about the ways in which the processes of globalisation might develop in the future, and about the potential for people to act to influence those processes.
Place and space
Globalisation has involved the emergence of unprecedented forms and levels of transnational and global interdependence. Students would investigate the ways in which individuals, groups and nations interrelate in myriad complex ways because of emerging patterns of globalisation. In this, issues of location would be central. They would also study the impacts of globalised activity on particular places, including impacts related to ecological damage and sustainability.
Culture and identity
National, regional and local cultures have been affected profoundly by globalisation. In turn, this has affected the processes of individual identity formation. Globalisation has been characterised by the world-wide spread of dominant Western cultural beliefs, materials and practices. This has been facilitated by global media networks, and by international transportation systems.
Other cultural aspects of globalisation have been the appropriation of particular ethnic cultural practices and materials - often by commercial interests, which have marketed them widely - and the resurgence in some places of strident local cultures as people resist the cultural homogenisation that marks globalisation.
Around the world, people have adopted globalised cultural practices, leading to hybrid identities and a weakening of 'national identity'.
Systems, resources and power
Globalisation has been marked by the emergence and strengthening of global systems - commercial (transnational corporations; trading blocs; financial systems); political/legal (UNO; regional alliances); military (security pacts; missile systems; surveillance) and cultural (communications; media; travel; sport; religion; education).
Issues of resource availability, exploitation, transportation, processing, use and disposal have all taken on a global dimension. Raw materials and processed goods circulate globally on an unprecedented scale.
Through globalisation, the differentials in power among nations, and among peoples in particular nations, have been heightened. Further, the power of nation-states has been challenged as transnational political organisations, economic institutions and capitalist corporations have become more powerful.